1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for storing and accessing electronic data. More particularly, the invention relates to a data storage, retrieval and distribution system for reducing the latency for multiple system users that independently access previously stored streams of electronic data.
2. Description of the Background Art
A typical interactive information distribution system comprises an information server, a data communications network and a user terminal. The server generally comprises one or more computers and an information storage device such as a disk drive or an array of disk drives. The disk-based storage stores both data and data searching tools. As such, a user terminal executes the data searching tool to identify data stored in the server and then requests that data for transmission to the user terminal for display. Since both the data and the data search tools are stored in the server's disk-based storage, a significant latency is experienced by the user when accessing both the tools and the data.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for a method and apparatus that reduces the latency in an interactive information distribution system.